Recently, students from the St. Francis Prep art department were again named winners in the National Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards.
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have grown to be the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition initiative for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. Students from across the nation submitted over 250,000 works of art and writing to the Scholastic Art Competition. Winners are recognized at the regional level and celebrated in exhibitions and ceremonies at The New School and the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art. Prep’s winners this year are:
Gold Keys
1. Kasper Bielecki — Gold Key
2. Jinghong Chen — Gold Key and Honorable Mention
3. Yejin Kim — 4 Gold Keys, 2 Honorable Mentions, 4 Silver keys
4. Allison Lau — 2 Gold Keys
5. Charlize Ruiz — Gold Key
Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions
1. Joshua Balina — Honorable Mention
2. Zhamia Nunez-Simon — Honorable Mention
3. Matthew Stabiner — Honorable Mention
4. Dongtianyi Zhao — Honorable Mention and Silver key
5. Shulin Song — Honorable Mention
6. Jessica Lee — Honorable Mention
7. Dian Wang — Silver Key
8. Victoria Reshetnikov — Silver Key and Honorable Mention
On Feb. 11, at the Walt Whitman Birthplace and Museum, St. Francis Prep freshman Valerie Franchitti and junior Nicole Kardum competed in the New York City regionals for Poetry Out Loud. Both of them did a spectacular job.
Kardum was able to go the distance and win runner-up. She will be going on to the New York state regional at F.I.T. on March 8, with a chance to go on to the nationals in April.
This is the 5th time in just 11 years that Prep has had a winner go to the state regionals — more than any other high school in the state.
Poetry Out Loud encourages students to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. Since 2005, Poetry Out Loud has grown to reach more than 3 million students and 50,000 teachers from 10,000 schools in every state, Washington, DC, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
On Feb. 3, four Prep seniors in the science research program were selected as semi-finalists in the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Vincent Smedile, Alex SooHoo, Chris Tuffy, and Katie Zahner went to present their research. Smedile was awarded third place in the Earth and Space Sciences Category. SooHoo came in first place in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Category and will go on to present as one of twelve regional finalists on Feb. 23.
According to senior SooHoo, he was “speechless” when he found out, and there was “a lot of euphoria.” He didn’t even expect to make it to the second round. For SooHoo, it was “humbling,” as he spent three years on his project that focuses on dementia. He hopes to make nationals, and that his research will have some benefit for those who suffer with the disease.
Prep senior, David Murtha, has been named a National Merit finalist. Last October, Murtha was one of nearly 2 million students who took the PSAT. Of those, 16,000 were designated as semi-finalists. Murtha has demonstrated distinguished performance, and high potential for future academic accomplishment.
For Murtha, he was “pretty excited” when he found out. For him, it’s not just the scholarships he will receive, but the official recognition. His dream school is MIT, and he hopes to major in biology, or pre-medical studies.
